Harris Becomes First Black Woman, South Asian Elected VP

[appalachiablue]

Source: AP News

Kamala Harris made history Saturday as the first Black woman elected as vice president of the United States, shattering barriers that have kept men — almost all of them white — entrenched at the highest levels of American politics for more than two centuries.

The 56-year-old California senator, also the first person of South Asian descent elected to the vice presidency, represents the multiculturalism that defines America but is largely absent from Washington’s power centers. Her Black identity has allowed her to speak in personal terms in a year of reckoning over police brutality and systemic racism. As the highest-ranking woman ever elected in American government, her victory gives hope to women who were devastated by Hillary Clinton’s defeat four years ago.

Harris has been a rising star in Democratic politics for much of the last two decades, serving as San Francisco’s district attorney and California’s attorney general before becoming a U.S. senator. After Harris ended her own 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, Joe Biden tapped her as his running mate. They will be sworn in as president and vice president on Jan. 20. Biden’s running mate selection carried added significance because he will be the oldest president ever inaugurated, at 78, and hasn’t committed to seeking a second term in 2024.

Harris often framed her candidacy as part of the legacy- often undervalued - of pioneering Black women who came before her, including educator Mary McLeod Bethune, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and Rep. Shirley Chisholm, the first Black candidate to seek a major party’s presidential nomination, in 1972.

“We’re not often taught their stories,” Harris said in August as she accepted her party’s vice presidential nomination. “But as Americans, we all stand on their shoulders.”...

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/kamala-harris-first-black-woman-vp-asian-12ddda402cab20c5aafbd7737ac619c8

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- Sen. Kamala Harris waves to the crowd as she launches her presidential campaign at a rally in her hometown of Oakland, Calif., 2019. Harris made history Saturday, Nov. 7, as the first Black woman elected as vice president of the United States, shattering barriers that have kept men- almost all of them white- entrenched at the highest levels of American politics for more than 2 centuries.

[progree]

1. First female vice president too /nt

[appalachiablue]

2. It's a huge first, I understand if the title didn't have space enuff

but the first sentence omits it too. AP knows better, but after this long harrowing campaign, I cut them some slack.

[progree]

3. First Asian-American too ✅ 😂😂😂

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/11/07/kamala-harris-makes-history-as-first-female-black-asian-american-vice-president/?sh=1e06aa153012

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/07/us/politics/kamala-harris.html

[appalachiablue]

4. Yes, got that in the 2nd sentence; totally blew the lede, '1st WOMAN VP'

It's a triple-header, trifecta!

[progree]

5. 2nd sentence says South Asian. It made me wonder if there was an East Asian or some other kind of

Asian that I couldn't think of in our V.P. history, and I wondered why a lot of news stories are making an enormous hoo hah about her being South Asian (without also pointing out she's the first Asian, period). Anyway, she's the first Asian of any gender, from any part of Asia (ancestry-wise), to be elected either V.P. or president. Since I was curious about that, I made the enormous logical leap to assume maybe some others were wondering about that too.

The 56-year-old California senator, also the first person of South Asian descent elected to the vice presidency

It would be like saying Obama was the first black Kenyan-American elected president. One would think, huh? Yes, the African-American half of his ancestry was rooted in Kenya (just like the Asian half of Kamala Harris's ancestry was rooted in South Asia), but nobody except a birther would talk about him being the first black Kenyan-American president. Or East-African-American president.

[appalachiablue]

6. Yes, the 1st Asian. 'South Asian' is used for India & Pakistan

mostly to distinguish from 'North Asia'- China, Korea-- at least it's how I've understood it.

Friends from Pakistan sometimes say 'South Asian.' Whatever people decide for themselves works for me.

[progree]

7. Like I say, some might be wondering if she was the only Asian as well as South Asian

and the answer is yes to both. I don't post to nitpick, just that I was curious and I think some others are too.

I think of China, Japan, Korea as East Asian myself

I added to my last post that nobody ever says that Obama was our first East-African-American president or our first Kenyan-American president.

[appalachiablue]

8. I get it, 'Asian' should have been used; then, maybe 'South Asian'

with 'Indian.' Good example with the 'East Africa' for Obama, that would have been messed up.

People I know from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan also say they are from those countries, not a continent.

I don't ever say I'm from 'North America' either like a plant or animal species. It's all crazy sometimes..

[progree]

9. First Tamil-American too 😂

Kamala Harris’ candidacy gives Tamil Americans a moment in the spotlight
https://www.ocregister.com/2020/08/30/kamala-harris-candidacy-gives-tamil-americans-a-moment-in-the-spotlight/

Irvine resident Sriram Kameswaran, a software engineer who, like Harris’ mother, comes from Tamil Nadu’s Brahmin community.

[Beacool]

10. She gave a wonderful speech.

I was moved to see her in a white suit. The only thing I would have added to her speech was a shout out to Hillary, who also wore a white suit when she broke barriers by becoming the first presidential nominee of a major political party.

[StevieM]

17. Agreed.

Great to hear from you again, Bea. I hope you are doing well in these difficult times.

[Beacool]

22. Hi, Stevie!!!

How are you in these hard pandemic times? I'm good, thank goodness, now better that Joe and Kamala won. I was so afraid that it would be another Hillary style situation, close but not cigar. I'm so relieved that in 70 days Trump would be nothing but a bad memory.

Hugs...

[progree]

11. First V.P. or president of Caribbean ancestry too?

The only similar I can think of is Alexander Hamilton, born Charlestown, Saint Kitts and Nevis, British West Indies, but he was never VP or president (he was shot and killed in a duel by V.P. Aaron Burr, so he does have some vice-presidential "ties" )

[appalachiablue]

12. Harris has a trifecta, or quad- 4 firsts: woman VP, Black, Asian,

Carib. - American.

Right now, I can't think of any exec./high office holders with Carib. ties.

I loved the trip we took w friends to St. Kitts and Nevis.

[Blasphemer]

20. Past or present? Eric Holder (parents from Barbados), Colin Powell (Jamaican parents) nt

[appalachiablue]

21. Good: the cabinet I forgot, was thinking House and Senate

[flibbitygiblets]

13. As someone would say, "this is a big fucking deal"!!!!

[Rizen]

14. Democrats are making huge strides forward.

[Aussie105]

16. Sorry - but I'm skipping all that.

Yes, she is female.
Yes, she is a Black Woman.
Yes, her parents came from India.
Yes, she has 'shattered barriers'.

Shallow thinking, there though!

She is all that.
But she is much more than that.
Intelligent.
Compassionate.
Well spoken.
A team player.
High energy and focused.
Young.


You tell me, which set of attributes is more important?

[rpannier]

18. Last three administrations have had firsts

Obama first African-American President
Kamala Harris (see above)
Donald Trump Oompa Loompa - Orangutan cross

[progree]

19. Yes, it is a very big deal whenever race and gender barriers are broken or rebroken

I know some somehow interpret the OP as implying that her race, ethnicity, and gender are her most important or only important characteristics.

But no. Rather, it's about this country's barriers to women and people of color -- not just from voters, but from major party establishments that until recently, never nominated a woman or person of color.

In the first 219 years of presidential elections, all elected presidents and vice presidents were white males (no surprise given that during most of that time women and native Americans couldn't vote, and neither could African Americans in large parts of the country).

The nomination and election of Barack Hussein Obama in 2008 broke the race barrier, and at the highest level. Some called it a fluke, given the economic catastrophe we faced after two terms of the other party, and that the other candidate was seen by many as a bit of a crackpot.

And quite significant given our racist history. I'm sitting here 6 miles away from where a cop slowly (for nearly 8 minutes) executed a Black man, while knowing full well that it was all being recorded. Because he thought he could get away with it, as all Minneapolis white cops have in the past.

We still have racial barriers, or ones that indirectly -- but deliberately and disproportionately -- target race, such as voter ID, upheld by the Supremacist Court. Another recent Supremacist Court ruling upholding Jim Crow elections was Shelby vs. Holder (2013) eviscerating Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

Hillary Clinton was the first woman nominated for president on a major party ticket, in 2016. And the first one to win the majority of the popular vote, despite a very effective illegal foreign campaign against her that unfortunately and with near certainty cost her more than the 78,000 votes she needed in 3 states (read "Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President; What We Don't, Can't, and Do Know" by Kathleen Hall Jamieson -- I have).

Well, another ethnic, racial, and gender barrier has been broken with the election of the first vice president who is female, who is Black, and who is Asian. (With the exception of Black, none of these have been elected to president either).

I notice in this excerpt from the OP that it's not just me and the OP that think her nomination (and now election) is important for gender and racial reasons --

Harris often framed her candidacy as part of the legacy- often undervalued - of pioneering Black women who came before her, including educator Mary McLeod Bethune, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and Rep. Shirley Chisholm, the first Black candidate to seek a major party’s presidential nomination, in 1972.

“We’re not often taught their stories,” Harris said in August as she accepted her party’s vice presidential nomination. “But as Americans, we all stand on their shoulders.”...